While the European Pillar of Social Rights will be announced and signed during the Gotenburgh EU Social Summit in Sweden on 17th November, progressives can only be disappointed. What is about to be a mere incantatory statement does not bring any concrete solutions to workers and does not translate into the introduction of social rights for all Europeans.

The market remains the only adjustment variable. Progressives must propose and implement concrete solutions to make social Europe a reality. These propositions include, for example, to add a social protocol to the existing treaties ensuring the predominance of social rights and collective bargaining over freedom of capital or to enhance social dialogue and collective bargaining with special measures to increase bargaining power of labour and ensure full labor and trade union rights. Further proposals of the Progressive Caucus on how to make social Europe a reality are available in the following position paper: Progressive Caucus – Common social policy position paper

More generally, we now need a new global pact making Europe a political power capable of using investments to rebalance inequalities between its territories and finance the ecological transition, to think and anticipate labor mutations, to protect workers and defend the general interest over the private interests of a growing minority.